Private John Henry Shepherd

The details below are from the Cowley Road Methodist Church Centre

“John Henry Shepherd was the second son of Henry and Ada Shepherd and the brother of Albert Shepherd. He was baptised at St Clements Church on 31 July 1898.

The Oxford Times recorded that John Shepherd was away at his first camp when war broke out in August 1914. He volunteered for overseas duties in May 1916 and was a Private in C Company, 2nd/4th Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He was wounded and reported missing on the Somme on 28 April 1917, when his Company were involved on a raid near St Quentin, but his death was not officially confirmed until January 1918. He was just 18 years old.

He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, the memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces, who died on the Somme before March 1918 and have no known grave.

Henry and Ada Shepherd remembered their sons in the ‘in memoriam’ column of the Oxford Times on 20 April 1918 with this verse:

One year has passed and still we miss them.
Sleep on, dear ones, in far-off graves,
Graves we shall never see.
But as long as life and memory last
You’ll still remembered be.

Name: SHEPHERD, JOHN HENRY
Initials: J H
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
Unit Text: “C” Coy. 2nd/4th Bn.
Age: 18
Date of Death: 28/04/1917
Service No: 200361
Additional information: Son of the late Henry Walter and Ada Louisa Shepherd, of 20, Caroline St., St. Clements, Oxford.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 10 A and 10 D.
Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

Please see: Raid Fayet, Near St Quentin, 28th April 1917.